Dear Friends, Virginians, citizens of Fairfax:

When I was a young English teacher living in Japan, my favorite activity was watching sumo wrestling. The two heavyweights would enter the ring, toss the ceremonial salt, circle each other, square up, and touch their knuckles to the ground....

AND THEN BANG!

They'd come together. Eventually, the bigger wrestler would grab the smaller and throw him out of the ring. The smaller wrestler only won if the larger wrestler made a mistake.

Yesterday, the factions of the State Senate circled each other over the State Budget. There were earnest speeches, sincere objections, denials of partisanship, and requests for the "comity of the Senate" (who is this person?) to return to the chamber.

AND THEN BANG.

We'd vote. Each time, the vote was the same (21-19) meaning that all Democrats voted for it and all Republicans voted against it. The bigger wrestler used his bulk to get his way. So much for the bipartisan unity of the Senate. I voted "yes" as this Budget spreads spending cuts equally and leaves K-12 spending relatively intact.

I'll let the opposition describe their own strenuous objections to our Senate Budget. Here's what my notes from yesterday show:

1. It spent too much money.
2. It didn't spend enough money.
3. It relied too much on debt.
4. It relied too much on cash.
5. It took education money (from the lottery) and used it for education.

Got that?

Anyway, we now have an adopted Senate budget which sets out our state priorities for the next two years. In the next couple days, I'll write up a summary at www.oxroadsouth.com to show some of the highlights. Considering the budget situation, most of the highlights are cuts. The most notable increases are in mental health funding and foster care. We also added another $180M for transportation by increasing the gas tax by one penny a gallon over the next five years.

This budget will have to be reconciled with the House by March 8th so we can get out of here. That gives us slightly over two weeks to get this done. Let's do it.

Kathy Neilson, my chief of staff, and I will be in Richmond through March 10th. Please contact us at (804) 698-7534 or email me at chap@fairfaxsenator.com with any questions or comments. Also please feel free to leave comments (positive or negative) at my Assembly blog www.oxroadsouth.com. Let us know how we can represent you better.

Sincerely,

Chap Petersen

Visit us at www.fairfaxsenator.com